Decent training and support. Co workers great to work with. Generally all with good work ethic. Company provides uniforms, vehicles and tooling to complete installations professionally.

Cons

Extreme micro-management. Every year the company expects more from their employees while devising ways to make bonus structure harder to achieve.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

The company has been growing and is becoming more successful as a result of the dedicated job performance of its employees. Chipping away at our earning ability should not be a strategy to increase the company bottom line.

I LOVE coming to work every day because every day is new and challenging. I used to work for a company where I would sit around and watch youtube all day because of how dead and slow it was. When things were busy it was great, but once you got into your groove it was very boring without any challenge. Dish is not like that. I have not had a single day where I did not have at least 8 hours worth of work to be done. Yes it is stressful. Yes it is difficult. Yes it is challenging. If you want an easy job where you don't have anything to do, Dish is not the company for you. Dish will provide a great pay but in return they ask you to not only do the job you were hired to do, but to be the best at it. People like to say they "give their all" or they "like a challenge", working for Dish will prove if you are all talk or if you really do believe that. DIsh is certainly not a company for everyone as well. I really appreciate just how honest this environment can be, and yes that means you do have to wear a thick skin. However, that honesty, at times can be hard to hear, drives me to be better every single day. When I do exceptional work, I receive praise. When I don't live up to the expectation I receive honest and direct feedback. If you are the type that can not handle honest and open feedback and use it as a tool to be better, this likely is not a great company for you. Again, many people say they like honest and open feedback, but this company will hold you accountable to see if you really do want that or if you are just using a catch phrase.

Cons

I am not in love with the benefits. Yes I am covered if something does happen to me, but it is expensive. I was spoiled with my wife's benefits as they would have been considered "phenominal" by anyone's standards. Dish has a medical plan that is pretty middle of the road. For where I live, it's cheaper and better than the marketplace, but I do expect more out of a company this size. I also am not a fan of how time away from work is treated. I would prefer to have just a set number of paid days that I can take for any reason, personal or otherwise. Instead there is paid time off and sick time. Paid time does not carry over year to year (frustrating) and 40 hours of sick time does. With this structure, I feel obligated to take all of my paid time off each year, whether I want to or not (not going to throw it away) and I will make sure I only have 40 hours of sick time to carry over...so again whether I need to or not, I will take sick days. In previous employment enviornments I have found that providing a more flexible time away from work plan, the employee's tend to be happier, more productive and less deceptive about why they need time off. Many studies do show that work forces do benefit from a flexible time away from work plan.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

I would love to see a complete overhaul of our benefits program. I addressed most of the concerns in the "cons" section. Also, in the last 3 years I have heard "we need to trust our management team to manage". We have spent a substantial amount of money investing in the development of our management force, yet I have not seen much in the way of cutting down the beauracracy and red tape of approvals to get anything done.

All fellow Dish employees will agree that the Free TOP 250 package is our biggest perk working here. Our second is the employee stock purchase plan (ESPP); which allows you to purchase DISH stock at an immediate 15% discount. Lastly, working a four day work week is envied by many of my 8-5 m-f friends.

Unfortunately, as a technician we only get a $2000 / year educational reimbursement. Managers get a $4000 / year reimbursement. Someone in benefits needs to address this misalignment with today's educational costs and the need to groom smart talent from within.

Speaking from a stockholder's perspective, Dish is doing many things right. We heldover $20 million is cash reserves, purchased spectrums that will allow us to further grow our business in both wireless and data, and continue to win CES awards for product innovation.

In addition, since I was employed throughout the 2008 financial crisis because so many others were home watching TV and unemployed, I consider this a personalized "pro" for working here.

Cons

There are two types of people who work for DISH. There are those that feel they are lucky to be employed, and those that are looking for a better job elsewhere.

The unspoken truth is that an installation technician is now a revenue source for Dish and will continue to have additional roles without an increase in pay.Think part salesmen, part satellite tech, part in-home-service. (That would be counter productive to their new source of increased profit.)

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Try and groom from within. Properly compensate employees(technicians) that caused the majority of 2014's profit growth. Although from a business perspective it makes sense to fire your highest paid front line employees just to rehire lower paid ones, it created a culture of distrust and lack of motivation to reach higher. There continues to be a feeling of job uncertainty, especially since technicians are now your sales people have have quotas.

The work is interesting, compensation is much better than people think, and the company is trying (with quite a bit of success) to be innovative in terms of its products/services.

Cons

I have had job openings posted for many months, and I can't get people in the door to interview due to the company's reputation - some of it deserved, some of it not. Our chairman wants to hire young, innovative thinkers, but doesn't understand that our lack of flexibility is unacceptable to this generation. As a result, we are hiring many people who just barely meet competency expectations. When a company has to scrape the bottom of the barrel to get employees, the future is very bleak. This is not meant to be offensive to the many really good people who work here, but the talent level is degrading due to the rigid policies. I really don't think that executive management understands this fact. The caliber of employees here at DISH isn't what it once was, and no matter how hard I try to paint this as a good place to work, really talented people aren't buying it. They are able to find plenty of places that will give them what they're looking for.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Figure out how to retain the good people you have (as many of them are looking elsewhere), and how to attract top level talent. You can keep things the way they are, but the competency level will continue to degrade. The people I have to work with lately on various projects are really not the caliber of employee you want -- not very smart, not very motivated, not enthusiastic -- they just fill a chair. Are you OK with that? If not, actually do some research on leadership and what top talent expects in an employer and try to make some small changes. I don't know of a single talented young person who would want to come to work in such an inflexible environment. Also, LEAD training is absolutely worthless. End those classes -- I have a ton of work to do (because I can't get anyone in here to help), and would prefer not to waste my time on leadership philosophies that will never be implemented.